"I started in music - the modelling and acting came later, so I don't feel that side of things has made people in the music industry take me any less seriously," she says. "Anyway, I started at an age when I didn't look my best - I was only a teenager."

The actress and musician, who is performing at Koko, London, on February 2, says she finds fame a mixed blessing.

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"I have contradictory feelings about it," she tells the Guardian. "It brings me lots of privileges - it helps me to find a doctor in an emergency, or a table in a restaurant. But it also steals my private life, and it's difficult when it affects my family. My children's lives shouldn't be touched by it."